The government is signalling that assisted departure flights out of Israel may end soon, as Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly is calls on Canadians and permanent residents in the area to get to the airport if they are called about a spot on a flight to Athens.
“If you’re given a spot, please take it because we don’t know how long this operation will be able to continue as the situation is very volatile,” Joly told reporters on her way into Tuesday’s cabinet meeting.
Roughly 6,600 Canadians in Israel and another 450 in Gaza and the West Bank have registered with Global Affairs Canada (GAC), the agency said late Tuesday.
Nearly 15,000 Canadians have registered in neighbouring Lebanon, but officials believe this is a fraction of the number of Canadian nationals in that country. Those Canadians are also being urged to leave when they can as fighting between Israeli and Hezbollah forces increases across the Israel-Lebanon border.
“If you are in Lebanon, it is now time to leave while commercial flights are still available,” Joly said.
To date, there have been 12 flights carrying Canadians, permanent residents and other foreign nationals from Tel Aviv to Athens, carrying about 1,400 passengers. Two more are scheduled for Wednesday.
Julie Sunday, assistant deputy foreign affairs minister for consular, security and emergency management, said during a briefing to reporters Tuesday afternoon that over the past six days about 1,800 seats on these assisted departure flights have been offered to eligible people in Israel.
“We’re looking at gauging what the need is. But as I’ve said, you know, we can’t assume that this will go on indefinitely because of A the security situation. But that initial sort of lack of commercial air access, as you know, many tourists and others were trying to leave, seems to be diminishing,” Sunday explained.
Sunday added that GAC is aware of 127 persons in the West Bank right now who may need help with an assisted departure. She says there has been difficulty reaching people, but for those who have been contacted a “very small number” are looking to leave in the immediate future.
Sunday attributed this to complicated family situations in the West Bank involving people not eligible for assisted departure
“Right now, I don’t have another busload that I can put together,” Sunday said.
At this point, GAC is aware of approximately 370 Canadians in Gaza who cannot leave, as no one is being let in or out of the territory.
Joly and Sunday both say negotiating with partners on the ground about opening the Rafah Crossing from Gaza to Egypt remains a top priority, and they are calling on Canadians to be ready to make the crossing on short notice.
Sunday said GAC is working with the Egyptian government on arranging potential transport for Canadians to Cairo across the Saini Peninsula, and they would then return to Canada if the crossing is opened.
Biden goes to Israel as fears of wider conflict grow
U.S. President Joe Biden was enroute to Israel for a Wednesday show of support that will now no longer include a summit with Arab leaders in Jordan.
Biden’s trip to the nation comes ahead of an expected Israeli ground offensive in the Gaza Strip that Israeli officials have suggested would aim to eliminate Hamas – the militant group that carried out a deadly surprise attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7.
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Since then, Israel has retaliated with relentless airstrikes in Gaza and ordered the population in the region’s northern half – some one million people – to leave, a move the UN’s high commissioner for human rights warned Wednesday could breach international law.
Plans for Biden to travel to Jordan were dashed after a strike on a hospital in Gaza on Tuesday killed hundreds of Palestinians, according to local authorities. The Hamas-led Gaza Health Ministry blamed an Israeli airstrike for the destruction, which Israel denied, pinning the blame on a misfired rocket from the Islamic Jihad terrorist group.
The White House said it was postponing Biden’s meeting with King Abdullah of Jordan, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who pulled out of the planned summit in protest over the hospital bombing.
While in the air, Biden released a statement saying he was “outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion at the Al Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza, and the terrible loss of life that resulted.”
He said he spoke “immediately” after hearing the news with King Abdullah II of Jordan and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and said he has “directed my national security team to continue gathering information about what exactly happened.”
Biden’s trip to Israel was expected to continue as planned. He is expected to show U.S. support for its ally as concerns grow that the conflict could expand into a larger regional one.
Israel’s military said Tuesday that it killed four people who it said had tried to cross the fence bordering Lebanon and plant an explosive device.
In the most serious escalation at the Lebanese-Israeli frontier in 17 years, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been trading fire on an almost daily basis since Hamas’s attack.
Meanwhile, Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Tuesday the office has concerns about Israel’s siege of Gaza and its northern evacuation order.
“International law requires that any lawful temporary evacuation by Israel, as the occupying power, of an area on the basis of the security of the population or imperative military reasons must be accompanied by the provision of proper accommodation for all evacuees, undertaken under satisfactory conditions of hygiene, health, safety and nutrition,” she said in the statement.
“There appears to have been no attempt by Israel to ensure this for the 1.1 million civilians ordered to move.
“We are concerned that this order, combined with the imposition of a complete siege of Gaza, may not be considered as lawful temporary evacuation and would therefore amount to a forcible transfer of civilians in breach of international law.”
The term “forcible transfer” describes the forced relocation of civilian populations and it is a crime against humanity punishable by the International Criminal Court.
The Palestinian health ministry said on Tuesday around 3,000 Palestinians have been killed and 12,500 wounded in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7.
Israeli officials have said Hamas killed roughly 1,300 people during its Oct. 7 attack and took roughly 200 hostages into Gaza.
More than one million people – almost half the population of Gaza – have been displaced within the enclave, the UN has said. The territory’s 2.3 million residents have been left without power, pushing health and water services to the brink of collapse, with fuel for hospital generators running low.
Aid remains stalled at Rafah Gate
International eyes have been on the Rafah Gate border crossing between Gaza and Egypt where thousands – both Palestinians and foreign nationals, including Canadians – are trying to flee from the region’s south.
Trucks carrying supplies continue to head toward the crossing, which is the only access point to Gaza outside of Israel’s control, though it was not certain whether they would be able to cross. Plans on Saturday to open the crossing did not go ahead, with Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly citing violence in the area.
After nine hours of negotiations, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said early on Tuesday he had agreed with Israel “to develop a plan” to get aid into Gaza.
The World Food Program has said it had more than 300 tons of food waiting to cross into Gaza.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged for the opening of a humanitarian corridor during a speech in the House of Commons on Monday. Joly has said work on establishing a humanitarian corridor into Gaza is a primary focus for Canada.
“Canada is calling for unimpeded humanitarian access and an unimpeded humanitarian corridor, so that essential aid like food, fuel and water can be delivered to civilians in Gaza,” Trudeau said.
“It is imperative that this happens.”
— with files from The Associated Press and Reuters
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